possessionblog

[possessionblog]

Genesis Tramaine

Genesis Tramaine (b. 1983) is an expressionist devotional painter who creates abstract portraits of men and women who transcend gender, race, and social structures.

First I Believed Catching Fish David and Goliath

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Owanto

Artist's website

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Wendimagegn Belete

Revenants, 2019, from the series archival photos.

Prints on matte photo paper, from digitally reproduced and artist-manipulated photographs.

Artist's website

[possessionblog]

Guadalupe Maravilla and the Sound of Healing

Sculptor, performer, and sound healer Guadalupe Maravilla combines his personal experiences as a formerly undocumented immigrant and cancer survivor with ancient and indigenous knowledge to create new rituals for healing.

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“This thesis involved a psychological study of the shamanic trance states of South African shamans. Literature on shamanism has marginalized or neglected Africa. The aim of this study was to establish the main elements unique to South African shamanic trance states, as well as to establish common factors with other traditions of shamanism....” 

— Ingo Lambrecht, University of the Witwatersrand

PhD dissertation, Johannesburg, 1998

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“In South Africa, amagqirha (traditional health practitioners) are frequently the first ports of call for many people should illness or misfortune befall them. Despite this, the actual practice of the traditional healing process or ukunyanga (divination system) still lack high profile recognition as a practice.... For amaXhosa amagqirha, umbilini is a key therapeutic skill used in their ukunyanga or ancestral guided healing force. Through umbilini, they are in contact with the cosmic world and are therefore able to sense their clients functioning levels. Umbilini as a psychotherapeutic tool is used in ukuthwasa (initiation) process among amaXhosa women in the Eastern Cape Province (Mlisa, 2009). However, the actual role played by intuition in healing is not clearly articulated or attended to....”

— Lily-Rose Nomfundo Mlisa, University of Fort Hare

Journal of Psychology in Africa 2013, 23(4), 609–14

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Zelco Nedic

Untitled #5 2015, wet plate collodion Four tintype plates hand coloured

From the Gold Scars series

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Carrie Reichardt

Carrie Reichardt creates anarchic artworks using vintage floral, kitsch, royal and religious crockery. Using craft and art as protest, she has campaigned for prisoners on death row and the Angola 3. Carrie is an outspoken advocate for using art as a form of personal therapy.

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‘Panic Room: A Safe Space for Reflection on the Value of Black Lives’ (2016) || Tiffany Smith

Thinking of Erica Garner. 

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John Giorno

RIP 1936–2019

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Virgin of the Mountain, we thank you because we have formed a successful musical trio.

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I was enjoying a vacation at the beaches of India when after an earthquake came the tsunami. I prayed the Virgin of Guadalupe so she would save me from death. Although, I was swept and suffered some injuries, miraculously I came out alive. I offer this in memory.

Pedro Saldivar. Mexico City, 2004

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Gabriela Campos offers this retablo to the Holy Virgin of Guadalupe for protecting and looking after her family during an assault they suffered in the state of Jalisco and from which they escaped unharmed.

Atizapan, 2018

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The cats always followed me on the street. I thought they did it because I was coming back from the market and they felt food. But then I noticed they always followed me. Probably because I care about them and talk with them, and leave them something to eat whenever I can. I think they know I like them and always caress them. I thank Saint Francis for sending me this company.

[possessionblog]

Dana Curtis

Palimpsest

Now, I will write about sadness: talk about birds with broken fingers, a nest I built beneath icy water and ruined twigs. No one listens anymore to the dark and empty places, to blocks stacked in the grass for no reason anyone can fathom. I always assumed repair to be possible, distortion reassembled into a weeping willow arching over a pond full of boneless fish. I once sat by a stone lion, became my own insignificant world while the feathers covered me like rain. Now, I will write about fear: I find all my lost loves asleep like hallways that might as well be circulatory and nervous. At every crossroad, I build a shrine with whatever bones are available. Scatter me as if ashes were moonlight on water.

Reposted from superstition [review]

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Julie Yau and the spiritual dimension of trauma

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Stephen Colbert & Anderson Cooper discuss grief